The season is terning...

Monday, 30 August

By now many of the terns which bred at Hayling Oysterbeds and in Langstone Harbour will have started on their annual migration back to wintering quarters in Africa. Others will hang around in British waters before they also leave. Whatever the status or location of these birds they have all departed their nesting areas. Well all but one pair that is. A very late nesting pair of Common Tern is still feeding two young on the north island of the Oysterbeds lagoon. They hatched their eggs on 08 August so the young are now almost three weeks old. I find it remarkable they have survived the last week of rainy and (at times) windy weather but they have. I visited the reserve last Friday and found them begging for food from their parents. The fact that the parents haven’t given up in the recent weather is admirable. Well, perhaps it’s more hormonally-led behaviour. A similarly late pair of Common Terns in 2006 eventually successfully fledged there two young in early September so this late nesting isn’t without precedent. The previous fledglings which I referred to in my previous post were finally led away from the lagoon on 16 August. I was lucky, and felt privileged, to witness their departure. One of the adults came in and fed one of its two young and then, without any calling that I could hear, started on its way back to the main harbour. As it got ten metres or so away from the lagoon islands one and then both youngsters flew up and followed it out. One was a bit smaller and blunter-winged than the other but, as a family group, they disappeared tentatively into the distance. They increased the total of fledged Common Terns from the reserve this year by two…. it currently stands at 82.

I’ve not been out much since last week but in sunnier conditions earlier this month there were a lot of hoverflies to be seen. I managed to get images of some of them, and even had a go at identifying a few. Having spent some time wandering around with a previous warden at Farlington Marshes in years gone by, someone who specialized in surveying and identifying these creatures, some of the identification stuff has rubbed off on me (I emphasize the “some” there!). Hoverflies I CAN get into, I suppose because many of them are very colourful and are a good subject for macro-photography. I even remembered some of the Latin names (most insects do not have common names, so you HAVE to learn the Latin). The key to locating the commoner species is to find some late-summer flowering plants, and look for them nectaring (and wait for the sun to come back out...not necessarily in that order….). Here’s a couple that I saw at the Oysterbeds, taking nectar from the yellow lowering Common Ragwort, an important source of nectar for many insects in the summer:

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Sphaerophoria scripta......................................Scaeva pyrastri

My visit to the reserve last Friday also coincided with a high spring tide and a good selection of autumn passage migrants. Along with several hundred Dunlin, Ringed Plovers, Redshanks and Turnstone a nice group of five juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and a Ruff had dropped in. The continued presence of an Osprey in the harbour had shifted the main roost of Oystercatchers in the harbour from the main harbour islands to the outer embankment of the Oysterbeds, with a total of 1276 counted. Quite impressive. A smaller number of Grey Plover (38) and Knot (3) were also seen. Seven Whimbrels, two Greenshanks and three Common Sandpipers completed the list of waders. Also of note were seven Little Terns with the gathering of Common Terns on the shingle spit just to the south of the lagoon, while single juvenile Black and Arctic Terns dropped in or flew past. Finally, the first returning Black-necked Grebe of the season was in the main harbour channel on the falling tide. Later I dropped by the Wildlife Trust reserve at Southmoor where at least 70 Yellow Wagtails had gathered to feed amongst the cattle. A Redstart and a couple of Wheatears were also here (four of the latter were also seen earlier at the Oysterbeds), while nearby three late Swifts were feeding over the pools at Budds Sewage Farm along with fifty or so Swallows and Sand Martins.